Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/349

Rh fighting force of a rare order. Though subject to weak health, and later handicapped by deafness, he fought his way to the front rank by sheer grit. Seldom loved, he was always feared. Coming to the head of the Government in war-time he had fine scope for his combative genius. He earned bitter hatreds as well as generous praise in Europe and in his own country from 1914 to 1921.

Australia in the World War.—The gallant deeds of the Australian naval and military forces in the World War cannot be separated conveniently from the general history of the campaign, and there will be noted here only the political and civil developments. Australia entered the war with an enthusiasm of patriotism which obscured for a time any open sign of the fact that there was a section of the population which reflected closely the opinions of the Irish Nationalist party. About a third of the Australian population is of Irish origin; of this third the majority were (and are) more Australian than Irish in their national outlook, but a fraction of them have always inclined to give a first place to their Irish sympathies. Some dignitaries of the Roman Catholic hierarchy (which is largely Irish in origin and in education) have done much to encourage this fraction. As the war developed and an opposition to the British cause grew up in Ireland there was an echo of this in Australia. It was never sufficient to stand in the way of a whole-hearted prosecution of the war; nor did Irish Australians as a class refuse to take their share of the war's perils. But it was sufficient to prevent in 1916 and again in 1917 the passing of a referendum to enforce conscription for service overseas because it was able then to enlist on its side a genuine Australian feeling, partly made up of an objection to compulsion as under the circumstances supererogatory, and partly arising from personal hostility to Mr. Hughes.

A full understanding of the Australian character is needed to reconcile some apparently conflicting circumstances from 1914 to 1918. At the outbreak of the war Australia had a fleet in being which was at once transferred to the British Admiralty and did most useful work in the Pacific and in European waters. There was never a suggestion to tie it down to home waters nor to limit its best strategic use as determined by the British Admiralty. On the military side Australia had instituted a compulsory National Defence system for home defence, and this system was far enough advanced to be of some use in the recruiting of an Australian army. But the nation relied, as did Great Britain at the outset, on voluntary enlistment for overseas service. There was a magnificent response to the call for volunteers. By the end of the year Australian forces had seized the German Pacific possessions, troops had been offered for service abroad and 31,000 had left Australia for Egypt. In 1915 the Australian Expeditionary Force went through the unhappy Gallipoli campaign, and in 1916 was taking a distinguished part in France and in the Near East. The number of Australian divisions serving abroad represented a full quota of its manhood (five divisions to represent five million people).

When in 1916 conscription was proposed, that section of the Irish Australian people which, following the unhappy course of events in Ireland, had become hostile to Great Britain, opposed it (as did some other sections of the people). Their influence was sufficient to defeat this proposal, partly because it was understood that Mr. Hughes, the Prime Minister, would resign if his proposal were defeated, and many wished him to resign; but chiefly because the Australians felt that—to use their own vernacular—"they were doing a fair thing, anyhow." Since, in all, Australia sent 329,682 troops abroad, and they suffered 317,953 casualties (58,961 killed) and incurred war expenditure totalling £288,000,000 it cannot be said that there was any half-hearted Australian participation in the World War, though the result of injudicious political action was at one time to give that impression. Indeed the Australian national character came out of the test of the war very well. The Australian troops, the "Anzacs" as they came to be known from the initials A.N.Z.A.C. (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps), won a splendid reputation for courage and steadfastness. The Australian civil population bore without murmuring the heart-breaking losses of the Gallipoli expedition and the devastation—smaller as regards loss of life but more cruel in its needless sacrifice—of the outbreak of venereal disease following the location of their young troops near the stews of Cairo. When an Australian corps was formed in France under an Australian leader, Lt.-Gen. Sir John Monash, and did really conspicuous service in 1918, Australian pride knew no bounds. Lt.-Gen. Sir John Monash was one of the figures of the war. Born of Jewish parents at Melbourne 1865 he graduated at Melbourne University as a civil engineer. In 1887 he received a commission in the Australian militia as a lieutenant and thereafter took a passionate interest in military history and military science. At the outbreak of the war he was at first appointed military censor in Australia with the rank of colonel. Later he served throughout the Gallipoli campaign and in Egypt, and then as G.O.C. the Third Australian Division in France. Finally, in May 1918 he was given command of the Australian Corps. In this command he proved conspicuous ability and energy. His first operation at Hamel, July 4 1918, had the distinction of being made the subject of a special staff brochure by the British General Staff.

Australia has made generous provision for her ex-service men. Pensions payable for total disability range from £2 2s. to £3 a week according to rank, with extra provision for a wife and all children under 16. A totally disabled soldier with wife and five children gets £3 172. 6d. a week. Ex-soldiers and sailors are helped liberally to reëstablish themselves in civil life. Coöperating with the state Governments the Commonwealth Government has made available farming lands, and grants and loans for houses, working capital, etc.

Before the war German trade and industry had strong footholds in Australia, German shipping lines and German metal companies in particular. Indeed the Germans had almost a monopoly of the treatment of Australian base metal ores. On the outbreak of war, steps were taken to extirpate all German interests in Australia, and the legislation against enemy property, and for the internment of enemy subjects, was far more severe than in Great Britain at the time. The German had never been popular in Australia as a trader, and there was some reflection in the rigour of the special war legislation of old hostility to a people who came under the suspicion of not playing the game."

Australia and the Peace.—Mr. Hughes as Prime Minister had during the war many political crises to face. His war attitude—which was ultra-vigorous—was very warmly approved in Great Britain by those who thought that Mr. Asquith's Government was somewhat slow in taking the necessary steps. This approval, expressed as it was with perhaps an excess of zeal, did not make things easier for Mr. Hughes with some Australians, who conceived the suspicion that he was "playing to the London gallery." No more deadly charge could be brought against a colonial politician than that. The Australian people are fervent in their Imperial loyalty, but they have always been jealous of "Downing Street interference" and somewhat suspicious of a London popularity for their leaders.

Internal dissensions forced a reconstruction of Mr. Hughes's Cabinet in Nov. 1916. Mr. Hughes and the Labour party drifted further apart and in 1917 he broke with them definitely, and, after an appeal to the country, formed a new ministry mainly from the ranks of the Opposition and including only three of his old Labour colleagues. A later appeal to the electors at the end of 1919 was destructive to the power of the Labour party (which was actively assisted by the "Irish party") both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, but brought into being a new group, "the Country party," which represents chiefly agricultural interests. Mr. Hughes formed a new Government in Jan. 1918, but up to 1921 it had had a somewhat precarious existence and had been subject to serious internal dissensions. None of these home political troubles, however, diverted Mr. Hughes from his campaign against the German enemy and against British elements which he considered to be not earnest enough